A kids friendly vacation at Macau

December 17, 2015

Early in the morning, we went to Changi to board the plane. What should have been a calm procedure ended up in panic in the bathroom. We had brought Cayen to the toilet to change diapers, and asked him if he wanted to pee himself. He shook his head and we started changing midway before Ah Po shrieked and swerved. I instinctly jumped aside too. Cayen had peed ... all over the pristine clean floor of the toilet. Sigh. Next we had to clean up the toilet early in the morning.. Great start to the holiday !

Then, Cayen fell asleep in his favourite airport stroller before we even boarded the plane.

So it also meant that he was wide awake the entire 4 hours on board. Not sure if it's due to the breakfast or the minor movement, he had puked a little in the plane. Thankfully it wasn't too much and he was quite composed throughout.

As we took the plane to Hong Kong, we had to take the "Sky ferry" to Macau direct from the airport. Actually in hindsight, I would take the budget airline to Macau directly next time because we had to wait abt 1.5 hour Cox we missed the ferry (as this passenger didn't board and flight was delayed by 20minutes). Anyway it was quite funny how his diaper got so full after the flight that when he was walking, his pants dropped down 30% due to the weight of the diapers. I was amused yet shocked all at the same time.

Well, here's our itinerary over the next few days to make it kids friendly ..

Day 1 - Check in at Holiday Inn

It was quite a good deal as we paid about S$250 per night for two nights that comes with Shrekfast on day 2 , dim sum breakfast on day 3 and around S$100 dining vouchers. Room is not that big but could fit in two queen beds and a cot. The only thing that could be improved on is that the shower didn't have a hose so Cayen can only bathe in the bathtub or else one of us would be wet together with him standing in the shower.

Good thing about Holiday Inn is that it is linked to Sheraton Hotel, Venetian and just next to City of Dreams so you may not need to get out of the building at all. And there's also indoor playgrounds for kids to spend their time. And there's also scheduled timings when the Dreamworks characters would roam the malls.

The hotel offers two types of pillows on each bed, the Firm and the Soft. So I killed about half an hour just playing the game of Guess the Firmness with Cayen.

No, it's not so cold in Macau. But he really fancied these ear muffs from Uniqlo so we got it. It was a good choice as these kept him entertained for a long time at the airport and in the hotel, pretending these are wings of a bird most of the time.

Day 2 - Shrekfast

I must say that the event decor and food presentation is very well done. You can get it as part of the hotel package or as a standalone package. Just need to book one day in advance. Think the kids love it.

After the very entertaining Shrekfast with photo taking with all the characters, we strolled over to Venetian.

Then, we took a ride to downtown to see the famous St Paul cathedral.

The famous steamed milk pudding

This super cool thing that will click to show the silhouette of your reflection.

Day 3 - change hotel to the new Studio City hotel

For only about S$280 per night (after 10% discount using credit card), one gets a Star Premium twin suite, with four complimentary passes to the Ferris wheel. This is a much better room than the first actually. Studio City also focuses more on entertainment than casino so you can expect playgrounds, magic shows, 4D batman rides and more.

Cayen was apprehensive about the glass panel. He asked, ”会不会掉下去”. Good to have a sense of danger....

We took Cayen to his first magic show as the indoor playground in Studio City is more suitable for slightly bigger kids, about 4-5 year olds , as there's quite a few rides involved. And glad we did, cox he loved all that magic and was completely enthralled the whole time through.

Watched the House of Dancing Water that night . I was quite taken by the entire choreography and stage mechanics though Cayen and my mum weren't that impressed . Though there was a segment featuring bikers on wheels and ramps that was quite exciting . I was holding my breath so much that I couldn't really take any photos.

Day 5 - went searching for some local food at the main downtown area . Was a bit disappointed by the small variety of options available. While food quality is not bad , I can't understand why the blog would say this is the most popular HK yum cha place in Macau. But it's worth a try if you are in the Red Market area, but not worth a taxi ride down from Cotai area. (Usually you can take the free hotel shuttle but if you want to go really early before 10.30am, then you will need to take a taxi which will set you back around 100+ MOP.

Went to Fishermen Wharf for a walk and lunch. Still looks the same as many years before. Had a good meal in one of the restaurants .

jackpot machine in restaurant

(Sorry you can't win this one)

Oh, and we let Cayen go to this indoor kids playground at City of Dreams that had quite a few things to do like dress up , arts and craft etc. It's pretty good.